Apollonius of Tyana -- by G.R.S. Mead

SECTION 12 - Apollonius The Prophet and Wonder-Worker

WE will now turn our attention for a brief space to that side of
Apollonius’ life which has made him the subject of invincible prejudice.
Apollonius was not only a philosopher, in the sense of being a theoretical
speculator or of being the follower of an ordered mode of life schooled in the
discipline of resignation; he was also a philosopher in the original
Pythagorean meaning of the term - a knower of Nature’s secrets, who thus could
speak as one having authority.

He knew the hidden things of Nature by sight and not by hearing; for him
the path of philosophy was a life whereby the man himself became an instrument
of knowing. Religion, for Apollonius, was not a faith only, it was a science.
For him the shows of things were but ever-changing appearances; cults and
rites, religions and faiths, were all one to him, provided the right spirit
were behind them. The Tyanean knew no differences of race or creed; such
narrow limitations were not for the philosopher.

Beyond all others would he have laughed to hear the word “miracle” applied
to his doings. “Miracle,” in its Christian theological sense, was an unknown
term in antiquity, and is a vestige of superstition today. For though many
believe that it is possible by means of the soul to effect a multitude of
things beyond the possibilities of a science which is confined entirely to the
investigation of physical forces, none but the unthinking believe that there
can be any interference in the working of the laws which Deity has impressed
upon Nature - the credo of Miraculists.

Most of the recorded wonder-doings of Apollonius are cases of prophecy or
foreseeing; of seeing at a distance and seeing the past; of seeing or hearing
in vision; of healing the sick or curing cases of obsession or possession.

Already as a youth, in the temple of Ægæ, Apollonius gave signs of the
possession of the rudiments of this psychic insight; not only did he sense
correctly the nature of the dark past of a rich but unworthy suppliant who
desired the restoration of his eyesight, but he foretold, though unclearly,
the evil end of one who made an attempt upon his innocence (i 12).

On meeting with Damis, his future faithful henchman volunteered his
services for the long journey to India on the ground that he knew the
languages of several of the countries through which they had to pass. “But I
understand them all, though I have learned none of them,” answered Apollonius,
in his usual enigmatical fashion, and added: “Marvel not that I know all the
tongues of men, for I know even what they never say” (i 19). And by this he
meant simply that he could read men's thoughts, not that he could speak all
languages. But Damis and Philostratus cannot understand so simple a fact of
psychic experience; they will have it that he knew not only the language of
all men, but also of birds and beasts (i 20).

In his conversation with the Babylonian monarch Vardan, Apollonius
distinctly claims foreknowledge. He says that he is a physician of the soul
and can free the king from the diseases of the mind, not only because he knows
what ought to be done, that is to say the proper discipline taught in the
Pythagorean and similar schools, but also because he foreknows the nature of
the king (i 32). Indeed we are told that the subject of foreknowledge
(p?????se?? ), of which science ( s?f?a ) Apollonious was a deep student, was
one of the principal topics discussed by our philosopher and his Indian hosts
(iii 42).

In fact, as Apollonius tells his philosophical and studious friend the
Roman Consul Telesinus, for him wisdom was a kind of divinizing or making
divine of the whole of nature, a sort of perpetual state of inspiration (
fe?asµs? ), (iv 40). And so we are told that Apollonius was apprised of all
things of this nature by the energy of his dæmonial nature ( da?µ????? ) (vii
10). Now for the student of the Pythagorean and Platonic schools the “dæmon”
of a man was what may be called the higher self, the spiritual side of the
soul as distinguished from the purely human. It is the better part of the man,
and when his physical consciousness is at-oned with this “dweller in heaven,”
he has (according to the highest mystic philosophy of ancient Greece) while
still on earth the powers of those incorporeal intermediate beings between
Gods and men called “dæmons”; a state higher still, the living man becomes at-oned
with the divine soul, he becomes a God on earth; and yet a stage higher he
becomes at one with the Good and so becomes God.

Hence we find Apollonius indignantly rejecting the accusation of magic
ignorantly brought against him, an art which achieved its results by means of
compacts with those low entities with which the outermost realm of inner
Nature swarms. Our philosopher repudiated equally the idea of his being a
soothsayer or diviner. With such arts he would have nothing to do; if ever he
uttered anything which savoured of foreknowledge, let them know it was not by
divination in the vulgar sense, but owing to “that wisdom which God reveals to
the wise” (iv 44).

The most numerous wonder-doings ascribed to Apollonius are instances
precisely of such foreknowledge or prophecy. 8 [See i 22 (cf 40), 34; iv 4, 6,
18 (cf v 19), 24, 43; v 7, 11, 13, 30, 37; vi 32; viii 26.] It must be
confessed that the utterances recorded are often obscure and enigmatical, but
this is the usual case with such prophecy; for future events are most
frequently either seen in symbolic representations, the meaning of which is
not clear until after the event, or heard in equally enigmatical sentences. At
times, however, we have instances of very precise foreknowledge, such as the
refusal of Apollonius to go on board a vessel which foundered on the voyage (v
18).

The instances of seeing present events at a distance, however - such as the
burning of a temple at Rome, which Apollonius saw while at Alexandria - are
clear enough. Indeed, if people know nothing else of the Tyanean, they have at
last heard how he saw at Ephesus the assassination of Domitian at Rome at the
very moment of its occurrence.

It was midday, to quote from the graphic account of Philostratus, and
Apollonius was in one of the small parks or groves in the suburbs, engaged in
delivering an address on some absorbing topic of philosophy. “At first he sank
his voice as though in some apprehension; he, however, continued his
exposition, but haltingly, and with far less force than usual, as a man who
had some other subject in his mind than that on which he is speaking; finally
he ceased speaking altogether as though he could not find his words. Then
staring fixedly on the ground, he started forward three or four paces, crying
out: ‘Strike the tyrant; strike!’ And this, not like a man who sees an image
in a mirror, but as one with the actual scene before his eyes, as though he
were himself taking part in it.”

Turning to his astonished audience he told them what he had seen. But
though they hoped it were true, they refused to believe it, and thought that
Apollonius had taken leave of his senses. But the philosopher gently answered:
You, on your part, are right to suspend your rejoicings till the news is
brought you in the usual fashion; “as for me, I go to return thanks to the
Gods for what I have myself seen” (viii 26).

Little wonder, then, if we read, not only of a number of symbolic dreams,
but of their proper interpretation, one of the most important branches of the
esoteric discipline of the school. (See especially i 23 and iv 34). Nor are we
surprised to hear that Apollonius, relying entirely on his inner knowledge,
was instrumental in obtaining the reprieve of an innocent man at Alexandria,
who was on the point of being executed with a batch of criminals (v 24).
Indeed, he seems to have known the secret past of many with whom he came in
contact (vi 3, 5).

The possession of such powers can put but little strain on the belief of a
generation like our own, to which such facts of psychic science are becoming
with every day more familiar. Nor should instances of curing diseases by
mesmeric processes astonish us, or even the so-called “casting out of evil
spirits,” if we give credence to the Gospel narrative and are familiar with
the general history of the times in which such healing of possession and
obsession was a commonplace. This, however, does not condemn us to any
endorsement of the fantastic descriptions of such happenings in which
Philostratus indulges. If it be credible that Apollonius was successful in
dealing with obscure mental cases - cases of obsession and possession - with
which our hospitals and asylums are filled today, and which are for the most
part beyond the skill of official science owing to its ignorance of the real
agencies at work, it is equally evident that Damis and Philostratus had little
understanding of the matter, and have given full rein to their imagination in
their narratives (See ii 4; iv 20, 25; v 42; vi 27, 43) Perhaps, however,
Philostratus in some instances is only repeating popular legend, the best case
of which is the curing of the plague at Ephesus which the Tyanean had foretold
on so many occasions. Popular legend would have it that the cause of the
plague was traced to an old beggar man, who was buried under a heap of stones
by the infuriated populace. On Apollonius ordering the stones to be removed,
it was found that what had been a beggar man was now a mad dog foaming at the
mouth (iv 10)!

On the contrary, the account of Apollonius’ “restoring to life” a young
girl of noble birth at Rome, is told with great moderation. Our philosopher
seems to have met the funeral procession by chance; whereupon he suddenly went
up to the bier, and, after making some passes over the maiden, and saying some
inaudible words, “waked her out of her seeming death.” But, says Damis,
“whether Apollonius noticed that the spark of the soul was still alive which
her friends had failed to perceive - they say it was raining lightly and a
slight vapour showed on her face - or whether he made the life in her warm
again and so restored her,” neither himself nor any who were present could say
(iv 45).

Of a distinctly more phenomenal nature are the stories of Apollonius
causing the writing to disappear from the tablets of one of his accusers
before Tigellinus (iv 44); of his drawing his leg out of the fetters to show
Damis that he was not really a prisoner though chained in the dungeons of
Domitian (vii 38); and of his “disappearing”(?fa?s??) from the tribunal (viii
5). [This expression is, however, perhaps only to be taken as rhetorical, for
in viii 8, the incident is referred to in the simple words “when he departed (ap???e)
from the tribunal.”

We are not, however, to suppose that Apollonius despised or neglected the
study of physical phenomena in his devotion to the inner science of things. On
the contrary, we have several instances of his rejection of mythology in
favour of a physical explanation of natural phenomena. Such, for instance, are
his explanations of the volcanic activity of Ætna (v 14, 17), and of a tidal
wave in Crete, the latter being accompanied with a correct indication of the
more immediate result of the occurrence. In fact an island had been thrown up
far out to sea by a submarine disturbance as was subsequently ascertained (iv
34). The explanation of the tides of Cadiz may also be placed in the same
category (v 2).